What Is a Challenge Calendar?
A undertaking administration calendar is one among many codecs for displaying a undertaking schedule. This can be a format that we’re all accustomed to—no matter our experience in undertaking administration, we’ve all seen a calendar. Because of this, undertaking calendars are a wonderful strategy to share data concerning the undertaking timeline with everybody on the group.
With that in thoughts, undertaking planning calendars are a bit extra complicated than those you employ in your on a regular basis life. Whereas their format is acquainted, they embody a wider array of data.
Why Are Challenge Calendars Essential?
There’s a purpose we nonetheless depend on a conventional calendar. They’re wonderful instruments for visualizing the passage of time and making a schedule. Challenge managers depend on calendar views for instance schedules in an easy-to-digest fashion, usually together with a Gantt chart, to show data as completely as potential. That stated, a undertaking planning calendar is a superb first step to take earlier than mapping out a timeline.
ProjectManager’s undertaking calendar has superior undertaking administration options to trace prices, assign duties to your group members and collaborate with them in actual time. As well as, ProjectManager gives different undertaking administration instruments comparable to Gantt charts, kanban boards, undertaking dashboards and extra.
Challenge calendars put all the data groups want concerning the undertaking plan timeline in an easy-to-understand format. It takes a educated eye to discern all the pieces project management tools comparable to Gantt charts or kanban boards are displaying, and, for a lot of, codecs like these are a bit overwhelming. A undertaking calendar, then again, is extraordinarily simple. Everybody on a group is totally different, and having a undertaking calendar readily available helps accommodate their varied preferences.
What Ought to Be Included in a Challenge Calendar?
Challenge calendars should present greater than necessary due dates. These are just one a part of the puzzle. If a undertaking calendar solely reveals this factor of the undertaking schedule, group members will probably be pressured to reference different paperwork, which may result in confusion and errors. An intensive undertaking administration calendar ought to mix the next three forms of calendars.
Challenge Timeline Calendar
At a fundamental degree, a undertaking calendar ought to point out the working hours for every day, non-working days and holidays so project teams know once they’re anticipated to work.
Challenge Activity Calendar
Challenge calendars ought to present all of the undertaking duties that make up a undertaking plan. In addition to indicating the beginning and finish dates for undertaking duties, a undertaking administration calendar ought to embody a quick job description explaining particulars comparable to what’s the work to be completed, who’s liable for executing the duty and what’s the anticipated length.
Challenge Useful resource Calendar
A sturdy undertaking planning calendar shouldn’t solely point out what duties are completed when, but in addition what assets will probably be wanted. A resource calendar reveals what assets are wanted for the execution of every job. Challenge assets embody labor, tools and supplies.
As a substitute of utilizing a majority of these undertaking calendars individually, create a undertaking calendar that places all of the undertaking scheduling data in a single place. Now, let’s evaluate some instruments you should use to create a undertaking administration calendar.
3 Generally Used Challenge Calendar Instruments
These instruments will let you create a undertaking calendar. Right here’s a fast overview of every of them so you possibly can select the one that most closely fits your wants.
Microsoft Excel
Whereas Microsoft Excel will not be a project planning instrument, you possibly can nonetheless use Excel spreadsheets to create a undertaking calendar by formatting cells from scratch. Nevertheless, Excel undertaking calendars are labor-intensive as they require to be manually up to date they usually lack necessary undertaking administration options comparable to job monitoring, real-time collaboration and useful resource allocation options.
Google Calendar
Google Calendar will assist you to save time as you gained’t must create a undertaking calendar from scratch like with Microsoft Excel. Nevertheless, whereas Google Calendar is perhaps used to create fundamental undertaking calendars, it’s not a undertaking planning instrument.
ProjectManager
ProjectManager has all the benefits of the undertaking calendar instruments on this listing. It’s geared up with a undertaking calendar view so that you gained’t must do any formatting to create your undertaking calendar, it allows you to collaborate on-line along with your group members in actual time and it comes with highly effective undertaking administration options comparable to Gantt charts, kanban boards and project dashboards at an reasonably priced value. As well as, ProjectManager has a user-friendly interface that’ll assist you to onboard your group simply.
How you can Create a Challenge Calendar in ProjectManager
The foundations for making a undertaking calendar aren’t set in stone. The best way you strategy a calendar depends upon the project, the group and the undertaking calendar instrument you employ. ProjectManager makes it straightforward to create a sturdy undertaking administration calendar that’ll assist you to handle tasks of all sizes.
1. Create a Activity Record
Making a job listing is a vital a part of making any undertaking calendar. To create a job listing in ProjectManager, step one is to create a brand new undertaking. When you’ve created a brand new undertaking, choose the duty view and begin including duties to your task list.
2. Add Particulars to Your Duties
Whenever you create your duties, it’s necessary to “flesh out” duties and supply as a lot element as potential. ProjectManager’s job playing cards allow you to add particulars comparable to a job title, description, anticipated length, due dates, assignees, prices, feedback, hyperlinks and recordsdata.
3. Overview Your Challenge Calendar
When you’ve constructed an in depth job listing, ProjectManager will robotically generate a undertaking calendar based mostly on the due dates you’ve entered.
4. Observe Your Challenge Calendar With A number of Challenge Planning Instruments
That is when a undertaking administration software program like ProjectManager takes undertaking administration calendars to the subsequent degree. Along with the undertaking calendar view, ProjectManager gives Gantt charts, kanban boards, undertaking dashboards and workload charts to provide the greatest undertaking administration instruments to plan and execute your undertaking calendars. Right here’s a fast overview of how you should use these instruments to watch your undertaking calendar.
ProjectManager’s Gantt charts are a strong undertaking planning instrument that means that you can establish job dependencies and undertaking milestones, discover the vital path of your undertaking and alter your undertaking schedule by merely dragging and dropping duties on a visible project timeline.
Kanban boards allow you to zoom into the standing of every of the duties in your undertaking calendar. With ProjectManager’s kanban boards, you possibly can simply assign work to your group members who can merely drag and drop duties from one column to a different as they full their actions.
ProjectManager’s real-time dashboards robotically sync along with your undertaking calendar so you possibly can observe undertaking prices and timelines at a look. As well as, workload charts allow you to visualize your group’s workload to find out who’s over or under-allocated. As well as, these workload charts may be changed into timesheets to trace your labor prices.
Greatest Practices for Making a Challenge Administration Calendar
Challenge calendars are distinctive to every group. In truth, a part of the great thing about a undertaking planning calendar is the potential for personalisation. That stated, there are just a few necessary guidelines of thumb to comply with with a view to keep away from falling into undertaking calendar pitfalls:
Colour-Code Your Challenge Calendar
As a result of undertaking calendars have been used for so long as they’ve, folks have picked up some methods for taking advantage of them. Considered one of these is colour coding. Colour coding isn’t nearly aesthetics. It’s about making undertaking calendars straightforward to know at a fast look.
Whenever you’re accustomed to which colours characterize what in your project management calendar, there’s no must learn the small print each time you want data. This drastically improves effectivity. And, for visible learners and employees, color-coding means calendars make much more sense.
Take into account Workloads In Your Challenge Calendar
Challenge calendars provide a wonderful strategy to examine on particular person workloads and make changes by providing you with the choice to filter your calendar by job assignee earlier than assigning any new work. This lets you see how busy or open somebody’s schedule is. After all, you too can examine workload in different methods, however having it on the undertaking calendar streamlines the method. Some undertaking managers even select to color-code their calendars by group members.
No matter the way you select to represent workloads, you don’t need any group member taking over “an excessive amount of house” on the calendar. This means that somebody is greater than doubtless drowning in duties, and this may have an effect on the standard of labor and even the undertaking timeline. Fortunately, calendars are a wonderful strategy to examine these particulars in seconds.
Create Contingencies for Your Challenge Calendar
It’s useful to set priorities for duties. Other than safeguarding you from going over vital due dates, these priorities additionally create a roadmap for contingency plans. Greater than doubtless, issues gained’t go precisely as they’re marked on the undertaking plan timeline. That’s why the very best undertaking managers have plans in place for adapting the undertaking calendar to every potential setback.
It isn’t sufficient to solely be prepared for one state of affairs. As a substitute, undertaking managers should “mess around” with calendars to map out totally different routes to the identical vacation spot. The excellent news is, on-line undertaking administration calendars make this experimentation course of straightforward and permit customers to strive as many contingency plans as they’ll consider with out dropping any of their unique work.
Challenge Calendar Templates
Should you’re not prepared to make use of undertaking administration software program to create a undertaking calendar, you possibly can strive the next free undertaking calendar templates.
Challenge Calendar Template
We’ve created a free project calendar template for Excel that can assist you visualize your undertaking schedule and preserve observe of necessary due dates. Nevertheless, whereas this undertaking calendar template may assist you to plan your group’s work, it’s a static doc that’ll solely take you up to now. To handle tasks, you’ll want a extra superior undertaking calendar, which you may get from ProjectManager.
Gantt Chart Template
This free Gantt chart template means that you can schedule and observe duties utilizing a Gantt chart format. Merely add due dates to your duties and the Gantt chart template will create a visible undertaking schedule based mostly on the length of your duties.
Useful resource Calendar Template
This resource calendar template will assist you to allocate your assets and observe prices over the course of your undertaking timeline.
Work Calendar Template
Our work schedule template allows you to zoom into the work hours for every group member for every day so you possibly can observe labor prices. This template is available in a weekly or month-to-month undertaking calendar format.
Activity Calendar Template
This task tracker template can be utilized alongside along with your undertaking calendars to get an in depth view of your duties. With this free template, you possibly can visualize who’s assigned to finish every job, what are the due dates and their precedence degree.
ProjectManager Has the Greatest Challenge Calendars
ProjectManager’s calendar view offers customers entry to the very best on-line undertaking calendar within the sport, and the facility to make it 100% distinctive to you. Getting began is straightforward. Simply create duties any means you want, whether or not that’s through Gantt charts, kanban playing cards, job lists or inside the calendar view itself.
Have to ask a group member a query a few sure job? There’s no want to leap to your e mail. Merely open the duty and tag the person in a remark.
ProjectManager’s calendar view allows you to lay out your work on a conventional calendar, giving your entire group an entry level to see the work schedule. Start ProjectManager free for 30 days and see how entry to our work administration instruments will assist convey success to your subsequent undertaking.
